


if you want to find me

by thescyfychannel



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Magic, Curse Breaking, Curses, Demons, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, M/M, Magic, Multi, wedding crashers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 15:23:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18919759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel
Summary: Karkat Vantas is having quite possibly the worst day of his young life. It's not because he's a demon, and it's not because his best-friend-slash-boyfriend-type-demon-guy made things official (which, in Sollux's terms, means they're basically demon married). It's not even because his childhood best friend and one of the loves of his life (which he just realized, like,today) is getting married to herotherchildhood best friend who isliterallycursed.Okay, maybe it's a little because of that, but it's mostly because Sollux, who happens to bethemost accurate record of all the dooms that have come and are yet to be has declared that if Feferi and Eridan get married, they're both literally doomed because of Eridan's stupid fucking curse.Oh, and it's also because he has no idea how to stop any of this from happening when everyone seems to be so gods damned determined on running headlong into their fates.





	1. along these paths we tread so dear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [auxanges](https://archiveofourown.org/users/auxanges/gifts).



> "Obligatory Demonstuck Prompt™. If you find a way to incorporate their aspects in a creative way (ie. not resorting to vampires and shit) you will have my gratitude, which sadly has no retail value but ill think very fondly on you"
> 
> cracks my knuckles so hard it breaks a wrist
> 
> Eridan Ampora - Prince of Hope: His dad fucked with the wrong fae and now both of his kids are Hella Cursed. Keeps inadvertently destroying shit. High magical power, chronic "wrong place, wrong time" syndrome. Often ends up in situations where he is (or looks like) the bad guy or perpetrator of bad guy things.  
> Feferi Peixes - Witch of Life: A wix! Definitely not a demon, though several wix might have some supernatural ancestry (other than wix) in their family tree.  
> Sollux Captor - Mage of Doom: A living archive demon. Aware of every possible doom there is in existence, every route that a doom might take or has taken, any possible doom that could occur.  
> Karkat Vantas - Knight of Blood: A "contract" demon. Protects unions, marriages, agreements, accords—most specifically, guards the "forging of blood bonds" from those who might seek to harm them.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat almost fails to crash a wedding.

She looks so gorgeous in that dress, you almost don't want to stop the wedding.

The thought is, in and of itself, a thoroughly unworthy one, unbefitting of your caste and class. You are a  _blood demon,_  a demon of the highest possible pedigree, heir to your clan and very, _very_  good at what you do. Romcoms aren't the kind of thing you go for, or—well, they're not the kind of thing anyone in your _clan_  would go for, but you kind of love them, and you are kind of overwhelmed by the sight of Feferi Peixes looking as beautiful as this.

It was...unusual, really. To be so involved in a situation such as this, one this close to your home and hear. You've known the bride since the two of you were schoolchildren, and...usually someone else from your clan would be assigned to this, not you. You _wish_  someone else from your clan were assigned to this, anyone but you—

Because Sollux Captor has pronounced an unimaginable doom over this entire godsdamn ceremony and you have no idea what you're going to do.

 

* * *

 

Archive demons were a dime a goddamn dozen, but putting in the effort to find a _useful_  one was a job not many were willing to take on. It was all well and good to hit up one of the millions that spewed out pointless trivia on any possible topic imaginable, but archive demons that actually knew shit—like life, death, love—were a hell of a lot harder to find. Even a semi-useful one was worth a fortune, but unfortunately for the idiots who'd tried to make an actual market out of selling Real Live Demons, archive demons were also absolute bastards, incredibly intelligent, and notoriously hard to catch.

In your opinion, however, once the bastards got attached to you, they were fucking impossible to get rid of. Case in point, one Sollux Captor, an archive demon of a high degree. Knowing all the potential dooms that could and would occur, and might and had occurred, while a very confusing set up to be sure, was apparently also a profitable one.

Theoretically. You're not actually sure that Sollux ever learned to market himself, because if he had, he definitely wouldn't be spending all of his time hanging around a contract demon, no matter _how_  highly placed in the food chain you might be. He could be in one of the great financial centers of the world, or off working in diplomacy, or something similarly impressive. Unfortunately for him (and for you, actually, now that you're thinking about it), Sollux kind of fucking sucks at talking to people, demons, and everything that actually breathed. It'd be kind of pathetic if it hadn't done a mobius double reacharound back into "endearing". Somehow.

 

So now you have a doom-centric archive demon hanging around, which...has actually made your job a hell of a lot easier. Knowing what bonds to break and what bonds to make _before_  you'd actually be forced to weigh in on one side or another has done wonders for your workload, and subsequently, both your and Sollux's work ethic.

Up until now. Now, you are having second thoughts, and also questioning yourself, and furthermore, you're regretting ever getting involved with a demon like him, because, well...

This isn't just any wedding. This is _Feferi Peixes_ , your best friend since the age of two, who is walking down that aisle looking like a vision of heaven on earth.

 

And also, as much as you love your romcoms, the beginning of a wedding has turned out to be literally the worst possible time to realize that you might be in love with the bride.

 

* * *

 

Feferi Peixes comes from a good family and a powerful line of wix. If there's anything you know about wix—and you, being a demon who works with bonds and contracts, know quite a bit more than anyone wants to think you do—it's that they like to keep the bloodlines strong. Hence the wedding, hence the groom, hence this whole goddamn debacle—the Amporas were as renowned a family as the Peixes, though for all of their talent and skill, some of that renown came in very different ways. 

Case in godsdamn point: The groom is a _fucking jinx_.

"KK, you're muttering under your breath again," says Sollux, appearing right the fuck out of nowhere with two plates of appetizers and hors d'oeuvres. You're not sure if there's a legitimate difference between the two things, but if there is, a Peixes/Ampora wedding would definitely have both. "And you're also wrong, he's not a jinx, he _is_  jinxed."

"Cursed," you retort. "Which basically means that he's a jinx!"

"Semantics," he replies, rolling his eyes at you as he bites into a tiny set of cubes on a stick, as if he hadn't been calling _you_  out on semantics literally a moment ago. "So what's the game plan?"

"She's my best friend, and she's getting _married_. Do I look like I have any kind of game plan?"

"You never seem to, no," Sollux says, squinting across the aisle to the groom's side. "Maybe some kind of epic distraction?"

He's fucking useless. "Okay, speaking of distractions, this is going to bug me. How the _hell_  did you get that food? I didn't even think they were serving anything yet."

"Saved it from certain doom at the hands of an unlucky waiter," he says, looking incredibly self-satisfied. You want to kick him in the ass, but that's an unproductive thought, and you're officially making a commitment to productivity, as of right fucking now.

You have a feeling it's going to do shit-all to help, but at least it makes _you_  feel a little bit better.

 

Useless plans run through your head at the speed of lightning. You're considering everything from shifting into your full demon form and grabbing her to sprinting down to the stables and borrowing a unicorn to sweep her off her feet on. It doesn't help that Ampora is her _other_  childhood best friend, even if you'd stayed as far the fuck away from his bad luck as you possibly could. It helps even _less_  that Eridan's the last remaining heir in good standing.

"Remind me what happened to his brother again? He was cursed too, right?"

" _Was_ ," says Sollux, who looks exceedingly amused. "I don't know if it's broken or not, but he's definitely not doomed. Also, the last I heard was that he ran off with some pretty-boy twink, and possibly, uh...does Feferi Peixes have a sister?"

"One. Meenah. Estranged from the family, she fucked off as soon as she reached legal age."

"Oh yeah, her."

" _Great_ ," you grit out. So everyone but Feferi gets a happy, uncursed ending. This is absolute fucking crap, and somebody needs to _do_  something about it.

 

* * *

 

Later on, when you've found your feet again and you're looking back on this moment, you will be absolutely fucking _furious_  at yourself for not using your actual, literal contract demon abilities. You could have stopped this at any fucking time, but you did not, because you are Bobo the Fool. Literally, you could have refused to attend (which would have scared off some of the more superstitious wix families) or even RSVPed to the wedding with a notation that your plus one was "CERTAIN DOOM UPON THIS UNION" (which would've definitely done it for all the rest), or even just...called Feferi and _talked_  to her. So many options. So many possibilities.  So little brain cells and so much godsdamn time.

 

* * *

 

Feferi comes up the aisle, and everything inside you goes liquid sparkling gold. She's _beautiful_ , absolutely radiant, and any sane thought that might have pulled you back towards a more _sensible_  course of action ups and throws itself right out the window in a defensively self-destructive act of defenestration. She's beautiful, and what's more, she looks _happy_. You know her. You would _know_  if she was faking it, and your last desperate hope (you think) must of been that she was, or she had been, because now that you _know_ , you're not sure there's anything else you can do.

"I thought this was arranged," you mumble to yourself, sinking down in your seat.

Beside you, Sollux has shifted from amused to contemplative with a side of exasperated. Your sort-of-boyfriend-demon-archive-guy is...uh, well. You're not sure how to describe him, but you guys _have_  spent a hefty chunk of time working together, and he's gotten pretty good at reading you. Instead of offering you the comfort that you are oh-so ready to receive, though, he turns his contemplative look towards the front of the ceremony—the bride, and the groom.

Oh. Okay. You can live with him giving Eridan a little more doom. Maybe he'll doom the unlucky bastard (stupidly lucky bastard, he's marrying _Feferi_ ) right out of the picture.

And then his gaze twitches the littlest bit left, and you see blue and red flickering on his hand and _he's aiming at Feferi_ —

You're not even aware of jumping up on your chair. You're not even aware of your demon form shifting out, wings and horns and eyes and scales and tail.

You are very, _very_  aware of the wedding coming to a screaming, crashing halt, all around you, when you shout out **_"NO."_**

****

* * *

****

Three hours have passed and Feferi is still very, _very_  mad at you. Eridan stands at her side like an anxious shadow, as if he's hardly daring to hope that someone might _actually_  let him stay—you have a very bad feeling that he'd been waiting for someone to interrupt the wedding long before Sollux made you grow the stones to, and that he might think it's a miracle that he was allowed to get this far.

"—and _another_  thing, Karkat Vantas! Just because it was _arranged_  by my mother doesn't mean I'm automatically going to be unhappy!"

And then there's this. The woman you love, reaming you out for what you've done. The worst part of it is, even though you _feel_  like an asshole, she keeps bringing up _incredibly_  concerning things. "Feferi, can you even hear yourself, your _mother_ , of all people—"

"Okay, that's enough," Sollux says. He's been standing there in his half-dismantled outfit (undone tie, shucked suit jacket, but he's still in the slacks and the vest, gods damn), looking incredibly amused this whole time. You would place a reasonable amount of money on this being the longest he's ever gone without speaking. "At this rate, we're not going to get anywhere."

"What the hell is _that_  supposed to mean?" Feferi rounds on him, and you do a quick _cut it out_  motion, hoping you can save your kind-of-datemate-demon from certain doom.

"This," Sollux says, and snaps his fingers. Eridan immediately crumples to ground.

Ah, _fuck_. This is going to be so many kinds of not good.

 

Feferi's eyes go wide and she lunges for him, barely catching his head before it lands with a thump. Then she sets him down and turns on Sollux.

Her hands twist into the front of Sollux's button down shirt, just over the stupid little vest you'd _finally_ gotten him to wear (fuck he looks so good in it) and she hauls him down to your height (fuck she looks so good doing that). "Tell me who you are and what the _hell_ you did to my fiancé, right now." 

Your eyes go wide, when you see the way his glitter, the hand coming up on Feferi's left side. "Sollux, no—" 

"Don't worry, KK," he replies, a steady drawl that informs you _exactly_ where his mind is. "Hurting her is the absolute last thing I have in mind."

" _Sollux_ ," you hiss, because hitting on her when she's angry is ridiculously unfair and Sollux has way too many pitch solicitations as it is. "Feferi, fuck, just—I can believe you when you say that you're in this for your own reasons, and that it's nothing to do with your mother or anything else, but...hear us out, please? That's all I ask. Hear us out, then if you decide to go through with this, I'll...we'll figure it out. You have my word."

"Seriously, dude?" Sollux's annoyed look could qualify as a dagger, but you shrug it off as best as you can. "I foresaw her _doom_ , that's not something you want to fuck around with."

Bright brown eyes go startled-wide. "Woah, what? Hold up—are you an archive demon? Someone told me you were working with an archive demon now, Karkat, but they didn't seem to know who..."

"We're, uh—"

"I'm his archive," Sollux says, as casual as if he's announcing the weather and not the fact that, by archive demon standards, saying that means you're _basically_  married. "And you're one of the loves of his life, soooo."

"Oh, Karkat," she says, and it's not even a little bit like pity, it's more like _fuck, Karkat, I wish you had something sooner_ , and then she's back to glaring at Sollux. "That _still_  doesn't explain or excuse what you did to my fiancé and _why_."

"For one, I only put him to sleep because his curse thingy was screwing up all of your attempts to explain." Sollux has somehow acquired yet another plate (or he put one in storage when the wedding went to hell), and he examines little chocolate-covered delicacies. "For two, could you maybe talk over the love of his life thing before my KK implodes?"

That is a highly offensive remark. You are definitely not going to implode. You're just. You know. Bright red, and standing here, because...location. It's a great location. Nice breeze, all that kind of thing. Yep. "I'm not going to _implode_."

Feferi glances at you. Sollux glances at you. They glance back at each other.

"Good point," Feferi says to Sollux, like he makes any good points _ever_. "Okay. Keep an eye on Eridan, keep him _safe_ , and if you give me your word that he will be totally fine when I come back—"

"Princess, I promise I will _not_  let any of the bad shit fate has intended for him touch him. Ok?"

"Okay," she says, and grabs your hand.

Okay. Now, now you might _maybe_  implode.


	2. the whispers wander ever near

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the magical garden rearranges itself to write a floriographical callout post for one Karkat Vantas.

Your best friend's wedding had taken place in a beautiful outdoor setting, nothing less than all the glory and splendor of nature that you'd associated with her all your life. Sprawling gardens, charmed to their brightest best by no one but herself, little pathways and secret spots to enjoy and explore—she takes you to one of them and settles you down on a quiet stone bench, surrounded by flowers and trees.

Later, she'll tell you those are red horse chestnuts, jasmine flowers, and wisteria trees, that the blooms that cascaded down upon you both were from trees of apple and peach, that the plants creeping in whenever you looked away were marigolds, coriander, rosemary, lavender, honeysuckle and oakleaf hydrangea, lilacs in both purple and white, and you'll look up their meanings, and feel a flustered little rush of _something_  at the realization that the garden had assembled itself into such a flagrantly descriptive insult. Later.

For now, you shift on the stone bench, taking all of her in. The gown is beautiful, and it suits her so well—she touches it with such honest joy, smoothing out her skirts as she takes her seat, that you know she's chosen it on her own—and before you can open your mouth any wider (you haven't _quite_  shoved your whole foot inside, yet) a whisper of breeze rolls through the little space, filling the air with falling petals and blossom scent, like all the sea's foam caught up in one gust.

You can't help but stare; she can't help but laugh, and the sound runs down your spine, a sweet reminder of every other beautiful thing she makes.

"Karkat, you have petals in your hair!" Oh, no—it's not the first time she's said it, and you remember each one as keenly as the last. When you were younger, for instance, unable to control your horns and eyes and scales and wings as well as you can now, she didn't seem to mind or care, reaching out to brush petals from your hair and _laughing_  at the feeling of your horns rather than shuddering away. Delight—Feferi, in your mind, is intrinsically linked with so many things, and delight is so high on the list. Oh, gods, you're rambling, and Feferi's hands are in your hair, and you really can't _help_  but close your eyes and start to purr—

—and, oh, Feferi's a lot closer than she was before. "I missed that."

"I missed it too," you say, your eyes snapped back open and far more wide than before. She missed that. You? The words are so easily substituted in and out. "Feferi, I—"

"You're oh for three right now, Karkat, so maybe let me start things out," she says, but she picks up your hands while she's saying it and you can't help but feel a little flicker of relief—and then annoyance at that flicker, and—fuck, she's talking. "Eridan heard about the arranged marriage before anyone else did. His curse...well, it's better some days and worse on others, and he's gotten pretty good at telling which ones those are."

"Right," you say, and Feferi squeezes your hand. "So...was he in on it, or what?"

"No, uh...he actually came to tell me about it, and told me that...you remember how we fought, when we were younger?" Of course you remember. _Everyone_  remembers. You've just been too polite to bring it up, and you'd like to _keep_  on that trend, so you just...nod. "Right, of course. Well, uhm. He started writing me, a couple years ago. Apologies, at first, until I told him to cut it out because he was getting annoying, and...he did? He was really making an effort, and...we ended up friends again, somehow. So he came to warn me, and—"

"If this is what he wanted, why did he _warn_  you?"

Her soft eyes turn sharp when she's annoyed, and you can't help but grin at the sight. Demons tend to like a little bit of edge, and you're no exception to the rule. "I'm _hoping_  it's because he grew up a bit and learned his lesson, after everything that happened." You open your mouth. "And yes, I know that you remember what happened too!" You close your mouth. "I was pissed, and now I'm not. It took a while getting there but that's _my_  deal and _his_  deal and no one else's, got it?"

"Got it."

"So he came to warn me and to offer to try and find me a way out—presumably by gunning for the marriage even harder and letting his curse take care of the rest, I guess—and I was...I guess, surprised? Because, well, it's Eridan, and it's me," she says, and you can see the flush tint her cheeks. It's not fucking fair, because it _is_  Eridan, who's loved her almost as long as...fuck, okay, almost as long as you're realizing you have, and it _is_  Feferi, who's pretty much been poised to marry some asshole heir to some asshole magical bloodline since the day they plopped her in whatever overly ostentatious crib it was they'd inherited from _generations_  of other magical assholes. "He told me that he did want to marry me, all politics and alliances and bloodline crap aside. That he...that he loved me, and actually got what that was _supposed_  to mean, now, and that he loved me, he liked me, he cared about me, and genuinely wanted me to be happy, however that would be."

Oh. Fuck. Okay. That...that's the kind of speech _you_  wish you could properly give without getting stupidly tongue-tied. You didn't actually know Ampora had that much romantic in him, and—no, that is _not_  a flicker of attraction, fucking _hell_ —and anyway, Feferi seems...moved, and genuine. You're pretty sure that your theories about this whole event are holding less and less water with every passing moment. "Okay. So he offered you an out, and...what?"

"I said no," she tells you, soft, gentle, and kind as she possibly can. You wonder if it's because she thinks she's breaking your heart; you wonder if it's because she's trying to build up to something else. "He loves me, and...I think I could fall in love with him? And, uh—" There's a blush painting her cheeks, and she shakes her head, like she's stopping you from pressing her to continue.

"Tell me."

"He accepts me? Everything about me. He accepts me for who I am, and after everything I went through with my family, you _have_  to know how much that means to me." You do, you really fucking do, which makes it even harder to hear all of this, and— "Plus, he's polyamorous too, and it's nice that he _gets_  it, and nicer that we could maybe even end up looking for partners together?"

Your brain goes to a screeching halt in the middle of its self-pitying symphony. You are staring at the girl you love with eyes that might be nearly as wide as saucers. Also, you are kind of wondering if that gently sweet tone was a set up for the mischief dancing in her eyes and the smile playing on her lips. "I."

"So if you'd like to submit your application—"

 

You shove her off the bench.

 

And then you immediately yelp and lunge after her.

**Author's Note:**

> with HEAVY DUTY thanks to Sartorially for the eridan help, The_Shame_Basement for the flower help, and liasangria for putting up with the "okay but HOW would he crash a wedding he's really bad at this" for probably more than half an hour


End file.
